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Kosovo shops celebrate Hillary Clinton and her style

Submitted by msnstyle on Tue, 03/01/2016 - 21:29

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Pristina, Kosovo - Tucked away inside Kosovo's largest Communist-era housing and shopping complex, one store stands out.

Behind mannequins in trouser suits and shiny gowns sits a framed photograph of Hillary Clinton with a beaming young woman. The store is called Hillary 2.

The woman in the photograph, Elda Morina, 33, and her brother, Besian, 31, help to run the women's clothing boutiques started by their father, Feim.

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In 2002, when the Morinas opened their first store, Feim, 69, decided it would be fitting to call it Hillary.

He had always admired Clinton's taste in fashion as First Lady and "wanted to also thank her and America in a way for everything that they have done for us".

The first boutique opened for business a few years after the brutal war in Kosovo ended in June 1999 when 78 days of NATO air strikes drove out Slobodan Milosevic's security forces from the tiny province that was then part of Serbia and mostly inhabited by ethnic Albanians.

US President Bill Clinton launched the strikes to prevent another genocide from unfolding in the Balkans, as had happened in Bosnia a few years earlier.

The Hillary boutique, located on Bill Clinton Boulevard, has changed premises since it first opened but remains on the same street.

Fourteen years after the Morinas started their family business, Hillary remains the "go-to" place for women, mostly working professionals in their mid-20s to 40s, seeking the latest styles from Istanbul.

"We have customers who come from all over Kosovo; they like the name and the styles," said Besian Morina, who runs Hillary while his sister manages Hillary 2.

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